FENS Research Award 2012

17.08.2012 - Dr. Ilka Diester has received the prestigious Boehringer Ingelheim FENS Research Award. The Frankfurt-based neurobiologist got a price money of €25,000 at the Forum of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies in Barcelona.

The award was dedicated to her research at Ernst-Strüngmann-Institut where she and her team analyse sensomotoric circuits with help of optogenetic and electrophysiological tools. Their research aims at developing neuroprotheses which can compensate neuronal functional disorders. The price is sponsored by the FENS and Boehringer.

13.11.2012 Allan Hillgrove will take over Engelbert Tjeenk Willink's responsibilities on the firms board and as its Managing Director of Division Marketing and Sales Prescription as of 1 January 2013.

Willink, Member of the Board of Managing Directors at Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH and responsible for Marketing and Sales of Prescription Medicines since 2009, has decided to leave the pharma major and global contract manufacturer at the end of 2012. The native Australian (52), who joined the Boehringer Group in 1982, became Head of Established Markets in 2010. Willink worked as Head of Marketing for Prescription Medicines at Boehringer from 2001-2005. Before that he acted as Head of Marketing and Sales in Canada, and from 2005-2008 he worked as Country Manager of Boehringer Ingelheim Mexico. Last year, the pharma giant achieved net sales of over 13bn. R&D expenditure in the business area Prescription Medicines, the marketing area that will now be led by Hillgrove, corresponded to 23.5% of the company’s net sales.

12.11.2012 Glenis Willmott has been named as the rapporteur for the European Parliament on the proposed Clinical Trials Regulation.

Willmott, Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party and spokesperson for Labour MEPs on health, was elected to lead the European Parliamentay Labour Party in 2009. The health expert is also a member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee.

05.11.2012 British GPCR drug discovery specialist Heptares Therapeutics Ltd has named Roger M. Perlmutter to its Board of Directors.

Perlmutter brings in more than 30 years of experience in academic and pharmaceutical industry research. The physician began his academic career in 1979 at Massachusetts General Hospital. After working at the University of Washington's Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1984-1997, he joined Merck&Co as VP Preclinical & Basic Research. In 2001, Perlmutter became VP of R&D at Amgen Inc., where he stayed until he retired in 2012.

29.10.2012 Liam Condon (44) to become the new Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Bayer CropScience subgroup and Chairman of the Board of Management at Bayer CropScience starting December 1, 2012.

Condon succeeds Sandra E. Peterson, who is leaving the company on November 30 and moving to Johnson & Johnson. He has been the Managing Director of Bayer Vital GmbH (Leverkusen), and head of Bayer Pharma's business in Germany since January of 2010. Condon studied International Business in Dublin and at the Technical University of Berlin. He holds a B.A. degree in International Marketing & Languages from Dublin City University and an MBA from the Japan Management Association. From 2007-2010 he was Managing Director of Bayer HealthCare China and Bayer Pharma General Manager for China. Liam Condon served as Managing Director of Schering China starting in 2005. Before that he was Regional Marketing and Medical Director for Schering's Asia-Pacific/Middle East region, based in Berlin.

23.10.2012 French Sartorius Stedim Biotech (Aubagne) has appointed Stefan Schlack as its new Senior Vice President of Marketing.

Schlack has been working for Sartorius since 1996. After completing vocational training in industrial business at the firm, he studied business economics and management in Cologne (GER) and worked in sales in its laboratory business unit. After taking his university degree in business management, Schlack relocated to the US, where he worked as a key account manager supporting pharmaceutical customers and handling OEM business. In 2006, he returned to Sartorius headquarters in Goetting. Since 2008, Stefan Schlack has been in charge of key account management as Vice President.

Itin headed German-based Micromet before it was taken over in a US$1.16bn deal by Amgen. In May, Cytos announced it had chosen the 48-year-old to succeed Thomas Hecht as its Chairman of the Board of Directors after an extraordinary shareholders meeting scheduled to take place in November 2012. Before Itin’s stint at the Micromet helm, he worked with California-based protein array specialist Zyomyx. Inc (Hayward). He received his Diplom in biology and Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of Basel. In addition, Christian Itin performed post-doctoral research at Basel University’s Biocenter and at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Winkler brings in 20 years of marketing, 11 of which as a medtech distribution specialist. Winkler is specialised in drug analytics and will start marketing Anagnostic’s hybcell technology in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

12.10.2012 Berlin-based diagnostics specialist Epigenomics AG has named its current Chief Financial Officer Dr. Thomas Taapken as the new Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 October 2012.

He will replace Geert Nygaard who will leave the Executive Management of the company. “On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank Geert Nygaard for his dedication to the Company for the past five and half years", said Heino von Prondzynski, Epigenomics’ Chairman of the Board. Prodzynski, a former Head of Roche Diagnostics, joined the company's board in March this year. He is regarded as a renowned industry expert. Epigenomics has faced several changes in the company's business strategy in the recent years. Taapken joined Epigenomics in April 2011 as Chief Financial Officer from Biotie Therapies (Finland). From 2005-2008 Taapken worked with elbion NV, which was then acquired by Biotie Therapies.

09.10.2012 Philip Astley-Sparke, previous President and CEO of BioVex, has become a venture partner in Forbion Capital Partners’ Boston office.

He will work with selected Forbion’s portfolio companies as a board member and/or advisor to help management to execute on their business plans. Until late 2011, the investment banker (JP Morgan) and biologist (BSc, Bristol University) worked with Amgen as its Vice President and General Manager after his former firm Biovex had been acquired by Amgen in a US$ 1bn deal. Forbion was the largest investor in the US-based developer of first-in-class oncolytic vaccines.

24.09.2012 Belgian chondrocyte therapy specialist TiGenix BV (Leuven) has named Jean Stéphenne as its Independent Director and new Chairman of the Board.

Previously, Stéphenne was a member of the executive team at GlaxoSmithKline, and Chairman and President of GSK Biologicals in Wavre (Belgium). He currently serves as Chairman of BESIX, IBA & BioWin, and Vesalius Biocapital.

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